News & Discussion: Active Transport

[rhino]

Sounds like a plan. Have all the traffic from Main North Road funneling into one lane doing 30km/hour. Be good for Adelaide City Council shops. Prospect Council, not so much.

[Llessur2002]

Have just received the below message at work. Can't find much on the ACC website and it's not clear if this is actual construction or just preliminary work. Fingers crossed though...

From now until October, there will be traffic delays at various times on Frome Road between Rundle Street and Albert Bridge due to the North-South Bikeway project. Most works will be completed at night. Upcoming daytime works and anticipated delays will be notified on traffic message boards.

[whatstheirnamesmom]

This is actual construction, which is meant to be beginning today. Bike SA and Bike Adelaide have been reporting this. I viewed the tender documents a few months ago, I assume not too much has changed in the final design. From Rundle St to North Tce we'll see a copy/paste of the bikeway as it exists from Grenfell to Rundle. From North Tce to Victoria Drive, car lanes will finally be reduced from two to one to allow room for wide bike lanes on either side, separated from traffic by flexi-posts (not a concrete buffer). Bus stops will be retained and will be shared with the bike lanes. The current painted footpath/cycle path treatment on the eastern side of Frome Rd will be disappearing. From Victoria Dr to Albert Bridge, a new shared-use path is being constructed on the western side of Frome Rd (similar to what exists on Frome Rd north of the Torrens). For cyclists heading south, the bike lane will be retained but with a new ramp allowing the option to transition to the existing pedestrian lights to facilitate crossover to the shared path. My understanding is the on-road (unprotected) bike lanes will remain on this section as an additional option for those not wanting to bother with the criss-cross heading south. The Victoria Dr slip lane at the intersection is also being removed.

The bike lanes will also be marked through the intersections of Rundle/Frome and North Tce/Frome (as they are on much of the current bikeway), meaning turning cars must yield to traffic in the continuing lane. This is different from the current setup of these intersections where cyclists are required to give way to turning cars who are ahead of them and are indicating a turn.

Stormwater works, footpath rehabilitation and road re-surfacing will also form part of this project I believe.

[Llessur2002]

This is actual construction, which is meant to be beginning today. Bike SA and Bike Adelaide have been reporting this. I viewed the tender documents a few months ago, I assume not too much has changed in the final design. From Rundle St to North Tce we'll see a copy/paste of the bikeway as it exists from Grenfell to Rundle. From North Tce to Victoria Drive, car lanes will finally be reduced from two to one to allow room for wide bike lanes on either side, separated from traffic by flexi-posts (not a concrete buffer). Bus stops will be retained and will be shared with the bike lanes. The current painted footpath/cycle path treatment on the eastern side of Frome Rd will be disappearing. From Victoria Dr to Albert Bridge, a new shared-use path is being constructed on the western side of Frome Rd (similar to what exists on Frome Rd north of the Torrens). For cyclists heading south, the bike lane will be retained but with a new ramp allowing the option to transition to the existing pedestrian lights to facilitate crossover to the shared path. My understanding is the on-road (unprotected) bike lanes will remain on this section as an additional option for those not wanting to bother with the criss-cross heading south. The Victoria Dr slip lane at the intersection is also being removed.

The bike lanes will also be marked through the intersections of Rundle/Frome and North Tce/Frome (as they are on much of the current bikeway), meaning turning cars must yield to traffic in the continuing lane. This is different from the current setup of these intersections where cyclists are required to give way to turning cars who are ahead of them and are indicating a turn.

Stormwater works, footpath rehabilitation and road re-surfacing will also form part of this project I believe.

Thanks for this - I work on the NT-Vic Drive section so this is very exciting to see!

[Nort]

Great to hear this is happening, I thought for sure that Crowne Plaza would have found some way to push back against it.

Just need to say bugger off to the lawyer NIMBYs now and get the East/West one built!

[Nathan]

Not sold on the flexy posts, and don't know why it's taken years and years for that to be the solution. But I guess it at least stops drivers stopping in the bike lane like they do now.

Is there anything in the plans to have a proper connection between the bikeway and the linear path (that isn't carry the bike up and down steps), as well as resolve the conflict with the Victoria Dr slip lane (The line markings imply cars changing into the slip lane have right of way over cyclists travelling straight — which is not how it should be and often creates issues between cars/busses and cyclists)?

[SRW]

This is actual construction, which is meant to be beginning today. Bike SA and Bike Adelaide have been reporting this. I viewed the tender documents a few months ago, I assume not too much has changed in the final design. From Rundle St to North Tce we'll see a copy/paste of the bikeway as it exists from Grenfell to Rundle. From North Tce to Victoria Drive, car lanes will finally be reduced from two to one to allow room for wide bike lanes on either side, separated from traffic by flexi-posts (not a concrete buffer). Bus stops will be retained and will be shared with the bike lanes. The current painted footpath/cycle path treatment on the eastern side of Frome Rd will be disappearing. From Victoria Dr to Albert Bridge, a new shared-use path is being constructed on the western side of Frome Rd (similar to what exists on Frome Rd north of the Torrens). For cyclists heading south, the bike lane will be retained but with a new ramp allowing the option to transition to the existing pedestrian lights to facilitate crossover to the shared path. My understanding is the on-road (unprotected) bike lanes will remain on this section as an additional option for those not wanting to bother with the criss-cross heading south. The Victoria Dr slip lane at the intersection is also being removed.

The bike lanes will also be marked through the intersections of Rundle/Frome and North Tce/Frome (as they are on much of the current bikeway), meaning turning cars must yield to traffic in the continuing lane. This is different from the current setup of these intersections where cyclists are required to give way to turning cars who are ahead of them and are indicating a turn.

Stormwater works, footpath rehabilitation and road re-surfacing will also form part of this project I believe.

Thank you for sharing. How odd that none of this has been communicated by Council publicly.

It's good that they're separating bikes from the footpaths and reducing lanes VicDr-NTce. They recently ripped up Frome for some sort of pipe works associated with Lot Fourteen, and its clear it can cope with one lane each way. Are they keeping median strip as is? It sounds like the bus stops will interupt the bike lane, but I wonder whether reducing the median would allow enough space for bus bays.

[Llessur2002]

its clear it can cope with one lane each way

Apart from access to the Wilson car park that is. I saw that creating relatively long queues on several occasions during those works.

@whatstheirnamesmom - Do you remember if the right turn lanes for people accessing the car park from the south are being retained?

[SRW]

its clear it can cope with one lane each way

Apart from access to the Wilson car park that is. I saw that creating relatively long queues on several occasions during those works.

@whatstheirnamesmom - Do you remember if the right turn lanes for people accessing the car park from the south are being retained?

Yes, that's true, but much clearer now the turning lane to the second access road at SA Pathology has reopened. I would assume this would be retained and the temporary right turn nearer VicDr would close.

[whatstheirnamesmom]

So the right turn into Gate 6 nearer Vic Dr is retained, and the other right turn further south (into 'Gate 4') will be defunct as it will be two exit-only lanes. Even though it will be defunct it looks like they are retaining it instead of expanding the median.. not sure why? It even notes that the right turn marking will be removed from the road.

The above also shows Bus Stop 1A East located in the bike lane. Bus Stop 1A West is being relocated to the other side of the intersection and looks like it will have a bus priority light. So at least one bus stop is being removed and won't conflict with the bike lane.

It also shows that a short section of footpath cycling is being retained past the intersection heading towards the transition into the separated bikeway.

Also shown is the removal of the Vic Dr slip lane and how that area will now be used for bikes to transition across to the east or continue around to the new shared path to the north.

I swung past Vic Dr last night, the site is now established adjacent Grundy Gardens. Looks like SGP Civil is delivering this one. The Lord Mayor has made an announcement of the project on her socials.

[Nathan]

Also shown is the removal of the Vic Dr slip lane and how that area will now be used for bikes to transition across to the east or continue around to the new shared path to the north.

Hallelujah! I've had more near misses at that slip lane then anywhere else in the city.

[Saltwater]

West Torrens Council have opened feedback on a Keswick Creek concept, which closes on 21st June: https://yoursay.westtorrens.sa.gov.au/creekpark

I've submitted feedback and am very supportive. My only criticism was it not extending further, through to at least Richmond / Hisense Oval, and possibly beyond in future. I also called out that as an area largely devoid of separated cycle ways, this would be of great benefit to the local community, as opposed to a tram line to the airport others have proposed along the same path.

[SRW]

Looks good and hopefully only the first stage to a longer upgrade as you suggest.

I’m not sure if the concrete channel is required for flood management but I’d love if more of both Keswick and Sturt creeks could be naturalised or at least semi-naturalised with gabion walls.

[Nort]

The South Road publicity material with all it's talk of green space and community improvements (90% of which will end up as dead gravel based on other sections) mentions a possible bike/cycle path there.

I imagine it's a bit more outside the councils hands right now. This propose plan turns the current bare dirt along the drain into a park but doesn't really touch the drain itself. A park/walking trail along the section adjacent to the oval and through to Brooker Terrace would require larger engineering works to partially or completely cover the storm drain.

[Listy]

The concept plan does mention the possibility of creating a wide land bridge across the drain at Chambers Ave to replace the existing footbridge, but yes, anything covering the drain would require SA Water's consent.